Making the Connections for Genentech

Keeping their heads while all around them Genentech workers hustled feverishly, DPR crews installed a fermentation train (a series of very large interconnected tanks that are used in the development and manufacture of pharmaceuticals) and all of the connections for its 16 tanks smack in the heart of the drug manufacturer’s 180,000-sq.-ft. Vacaville, Calif. facility—and without a single hour of operation lost. Determined to provide Genentech and its workers with exceptional results in a challenging environment, the DPR team delivered the project on time and with zero punchlist.

When awarded in December 1998, the project’s plans called for a June shutdown of the Genentech facility, giving DPR some breathing room to install the new equipment and connect it to the existing process. “After the project was under way, we were notified that the planned shutdown of the facility was no longer possible,” said DPR Project Manager George Pfeffer. “In order to make the connections without a shutdown, we had to take each of the 320 tie-ins and examine every detail of its function to determine how and when to connect it without affecting operations.” The solution? A phased approach that took one fermentation tank offline for a couple of hours, while a crew performed the tie-ins. The crew then moved on to the next tank until all tie-ins were completed.

In addition to plotting the tie-in strategy, DPR adapted its original timetable to install and bring online a new process room with a centrifuge. With a mid-February completion date looming, the design for the new centrifuge equipment was not ready until mid-January. “We worked around the clock seven days a week from mid-January to mid-February—the long-lead equipment was on its way—and we had the centrifuge installed, serviced and running on the date Genentech wanted it, with zero punchlist,” said DPR MEP Coordinator Steve Zoeller.

According to Assistant Project Manager Mike Marston, pharmaceutical company projects are among the most complicated DPR does. These facilities must be certified by the Federal Drug Administration, which means reams of documentation. A single stainless steel pipe in the Genentech ceiling, for example, had to have documentation as to the line or service it is part of, its installation date, who installed it, the temperature on the day it was installed, the manufacturer from whom it was purchased, who mined the metal, and other similar, minute details.